Maltesers
by Bethbunnygirl3
Summary: After Phil decides to move out of his and Dan's flat to live with his girlfriend, Dan looks for a new roommate. He finds Ella, who is also a british Youtuber, who is looking to move closer to her boyfriend. After Ella finds out that her boyfriend cheated on her, she builds a relationship with Dan that's harder to describe than Dan's love for Maltesers.
1. Chapter 1

Dan opened the cupboard, moving the box of biscuits to reveal nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yet, he knew that there was supposed to be _something _taking up that spot. He slammed the cupboard door and turned around. "ELLA!" he yelled, anger rising in his voice. "DID YOU EAT MY MALTESERS?"

"NO!" she replied from her room.

He marched down the hallway and thrust her door open. "Liar!" he hissed. "Who else would have eaten them?"

Ella rolled her eyes, not looking up from her laptop. "You get too attached to food."

"Maltesers are not just _food_, they are sex."

She closed her laptop and set it aside. "Then you're accusing me of eating your sex?" she snickered, getting off of her bed.

"That's not it, either. You also drank all of the milk yesterday."

"I don't even _like _milk, Dan. I used it in my cereal."

"Like it makes a difference. You didn't leave any for _my _cereal," he sneered.

She stood facing him, yet at a disadvantage being about four inches shorter than him. "Well at least I don't walk around eating all of your cereal without milk."

"So you're comparing yourself to Phil now?"

"Well, why the hell not?" she asked, more of a rhetorical question.

"I guess you're right. He is a _much _better flat mate than _you _are," he said. She glared at him, knocking him out of the way and walking out of her room. She pulled her phone out, typing on the keypad. She grabbed her jacket. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To my boyfriend's house. Where s_omeone _respects me."

He laughed. "I sure as hell aren't coming with you, so who exactly are you talking about?"

"_Michael_."

"Oh really? You better hope you don't walk in on him fucking Lilah."

She stopped. "What?"

Suddenly Dan was snapped back into reality. _Shit, _he thought. "Nothing," he said, back at his normal tone.

"Who's Lilah?" she questioned, her voice shaky.

"Nobody," he murmured, sitting on the couch. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the look on her face, and he felt his heart sink into his stomach. She looked as if she wanted to cry. He had heard about the fact that her boyfriend had cheated on her from Phil; who always seemed to know what was going on, probably due to the fact that he was slightly more social than Dan. He hadn't planned on telling her, but being the possessive idiot he was, it had slipped.

She started walking to the door, repeatedly murmuring something under her breath. He was just able to make out what she was saying. "He's lying. Michael would never cheat on me."

He could tell by the sound of her voice that she wasn't far from crying. He had only seen Ella cry in front of him once before. He couldn't handle girls crying. He wished he had done something that day, but being his awkward self, he didn't.

_"Ella!" he called. "Do you want to go get some Starbucks?" _

_ He didn't hear a reply, so he walked down the hallway, knocking on her door. Once again, there was no reply, yet he heard what sounded like her sleeping. He opened the door. "Ella?" he asked quietly. _

_ There she was, makeup staining her face and tears rolling down her cheeks. Quiet sobs were escaping her mouth and she had her blanket pulled up past her chest. She was staring at the wall, completely ignoring Dan's existence. "Are you okay?" he asked. _

_ "I'm fine," she choked out. _

_ He looked at his feet, nodding quickly and backing out of the room. _

He still had no idea what that was about. He only knew he felt utterly helpless that day, going to his room and not coming out. He didn't even do anything; he only curled into his bed and stared at the wall for hours on end. Sometimes, he had the weirdest feelings when it came to Ella. It was indescribable. He heard the door close and turned his head to see that she was gone. He lounged across the couch and stared up at the ceiling. _What's going to happen now? _he thought. _Is she going to come back? _

He must have been staring at the ceiling for an hour. His phone started ringing and he picked it up, surprised at the time. He looked at the caller ID. Ella. "Hello?" he answered.

"Dan-" _sniff _"Can you come pick me up?" _sniff _"I can't drive."

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," he mumbled. She hung up.

He jumped up and hurried towards the door, taking his keys. He quickly walked down the hallway and to the elevator, then to the garage and got in his car. He drove down to Michael's complex and stopped out front, taking out his phone. He dialed Ella's number. "I'm here," he said.

"I see you," she replied.

A minute later the passenger door swung open and she got in. Dan glanced over at her. He quickly looked back forward. He couldn't stand to see her like that. "What about your car?" he asked.

"I'll deal with that later."

He started driving back towards the flat. "Uh... Do you wanna stop and get something to eat?"

"I'm not hungry."

They sat in silence until they arrived at the flat. The ride that usually took a few minutes seemed to take days. Occasionally he would look over at her just to make sure she was okay. Well, as okay as she could be. As he pulled into the garage he jumped out quickly and ran to the other side to open her door for her.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

He watched as she slumped miserably up to the flat. They stood in an awkward silence in the elevator. He looked at the reflective surface of the wall, trying to make it seem like he wasn't looking at her. She just continued to look at her feet. As the lift doors opened, they walked down the hall and Dan unlocked the door and let her in. He dropped his keys on the coffee table and watched as she went into her room and closed the door. He sat on the couch and stared up at the ceiling again. He couldn't stop thinking about Ella. He knew that he had only stared at the ceiling for a few moments, because soon he heard a vaguely familiar sound, but this time he knew what it was. She was crying. He stood up and walked down the hall slowly, clutching the doorknob in his hand. He wanted to go in and do something, but he didn't know what to do. On a limb, he opened the door. She looked up at him. The fact that she could still look beautiful while crying took his breath away. He took a step in and closed the door behind him. It made a creaking noise. He slowly walked over to her bed and sat down next to her. She was looking at her hands in her lap. He studied her for a second. She looked the same she did from a few moments ago, aside from the fact that instead of a few occasional tears rolling down her cheeks, there was a constant flow. "Ella," he whispered, taking her hand.

She didn't say anything. The only sound that left her mouth were quiet sobs.

"Ella," he repeated. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

"It could have been worse," she paused. They sat in silence for a minute. "How long have you known?" she asked.

He swallowed. "A week or so. I didn't want to tell you because..." _I knew it would break your heart. _

She seemed to understand what was unspoken. "I would have rather wanted to know. I wouldn't have wanted to waste any more time with him."

"I'm sorry," he said again.

She sniffed. "It's okay. I guess it wouldn't have made a difference of how I'd feel right now," and with that, she burst into tears again.

Dan got closer to her, putting his arms around. That's when realized it was his first time hugging her. Phil had hugged her before, but that was more predictable. He was more of a hugging person. She didn't seem to think anything of it. She only continued to cry, yet now into his chest. She shook in his arms slightly, due to her sobbing, so he pulled he closer. After a couple minutes, the crying ceased. "I sorry," he heard her say.

"For what?" he asked.

She backed away from him slightly. "For putting you in such an awkward position. It doesn't take a genius to notice how uncomfortable you are with me crying."

"I'm not uncomfortable," he retorted. "I'm only worried."

She looked at her hands. "I think I'm going to go to sleep."

_Did I say something wrong? _he wondered. "Okay," he replied, timidly. He stood up and walked towards the door, stopping before he went to open it. He turned around. "You know you can always talk to me, right?"

She nodded. He turned back around and left her room, walking across the small hall to his. He took off his pants and shirt, which was damp with a bit of makeup smears on it one area, off, tossing them into a random pile. He sat in his bed against the wall and grabbed his laptop, opening it to tumblr. He started scrolling through his dash, hoping to find something to cheer him up, but he couldn't. He closed his laptop and set it aside, lounging out on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. What was it with him and ceilings today? He sat there for who knows how long, up until he heard his door creak open. He turned his head to see Ella standing in the doorway. Her eyes were red again and filled with tears. She slowly stepped closer and sat on the edge of his bed. She didn't seem to care that he was only in boxers.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She ignored his question. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

He moved over a bit to make more room for her. "Of course, yeah."

She pulled her legs up and rolled onto his bed, almost in a rollie-pollie kind of way. Dan smiled slightly. She blinked, and he watched as more tears rolled down her cheeks. He couldn't stop himself from reaching out and wiping them away.

She touched her hand to her cheek lightly, almost trying to relive what she just felt. His touch was so soft and gentle, and she almost wanted for it to happen again. It was so much more caring, and she longed for it so much more than she ever did for Michael. _Michael. _She tried not to get lost in her thoughts as she heard Dan beginning to speak.

"I probably wouldn't trust someone I met over the internet."

She paused, slightly tensing up. "I met you over the internet."

"Sometimes I forget that. I just know you so well, you know? I mean, you trust me right?" he asked. She could feel how he was tensing up next to her, too.

She thought for a minute. "Yeah. I wouldn't be living with you, let alone sleeping next to you if I didn't."

The tenseness seemed to wash away after that.

Things went quiet. Ella decided to speak. "Here's some better advice for you; don't fall in love," as she said that, she could feel tears forming in her eyes. "You always know love leads to heartbreak," she finished, letting the tears fall.

Dan put his arms around her again, pulling her closer to him. She formed into his body, for once her height being an advantage. "Love isn't always bad," he whispered into her ear.

She could feel his hot breath on her neck. Her cheeks flushed red, but due to all her crying didn't make much of a difference.

Dan continued to hold her like that until he heard her breathing slow, knowing she was asleep. He closed his eyes, even though he wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon. He knew at that moment exactly how he felt about Ella. Her advice had come a bit too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan opened his eyes and looked around. _Was last night just a dream? _He stood up and pulled a random pair of sweatpants on, walking out into the living room. He sat on the couch, tossing his feet up.

"Of course, _now _you decide to wake up."

He turned his head, smiling. Ella stood in the kitchen, a cup of juice in her hand. "Good morning to you, too," he snickered.

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, though. It was impossible to get out of your arms. You wouldn't let go of me for dear life."

Dan could feel his cheeks heating up. He looked down so she wouldn't see him blushing. _Well, at least I know it wasn't a dream. _There was a slight _clink _as Ella sat her glass down and sauntered over to the couch, throwing her legs over it from behind and sliding in next to Dan. He glanced over at her before turning his attention back to the TV. Ella gasped.

"What?" Dan asked.

"I..." she began, "I reached one million subscribers!"

"Wow..." he replied. He was genuinely shocked that she had before him. Not that he wasn't happy for her, only that he had been on YouTube for much longer.

She touched his shoulder. "Don't take offense, babe. It's probably because I have boobs."

He smiled at her. The fact that she had called him "_babe_" cheered him up slightly. "You seem to be in a much better mood than yesterday," he said. He immediately wished he hadn't said that.

She twitched, her face falling. "Um, yeah."

"So how are we going to celebrate?" he changed the subject.

She smiled again. "I'll ask my followers. That could make a funny video."

He nodded. "We could do a huge collab with the fantastic foursome and everybody."

"Good idea," she added, typing away on her phone. "I'll call Carrie and see if she can contact Jack and Dean. I'll contact the twins myself. You round up the boys."

"We doing this tonight?"

"Hell yeah we are."

"Hello everyone!" Ella started. "I'd like to begin by thanking all my subscribers, all one million of them," she smiled. "It is seriously an honor to say that I am the only one in this room with that many subscribers."

The camera zoomed out and you could see the entire crowd of people around her. Dan looked down at Ella and smiled. "Now, we're going to all introduce ourselves for any of you who don't know. I'm Dan Howell."

"I'm Phil Lester."

"I'm Carrie Hope Fletcher."

"I'm Jack Harries."

"I'm Dean Dobbs."

"I'm PJ Liguori."

"And I'm Chris Kendall."

The attention turned back to Ella. "In celebration of me reaching one million subscribers, we are going to do some of _your _Twitter suggestions," she said, pointing to the camera. They stopped the filming and got into positions, ready to film the next part.

PJ started off. "Katie_Marie23 suggested that we see who can fit their entire fists in their mouths," he held his fist up, looked over at it, then back at the camera.

They started off with Phil, who managed to get his fist about halfway into his mouth. Then Dean tried, barely being able to get more than a few fingers in his mouth. They continued to go through everyone, nobody being successful. Then it came down to Ella. Dan watched off camera as she was able to fit her entire fist in her mouth. He raised his eyebrows at her. She smiled sheepishly.

"And now," Jack began, "We are going to blindfold Ella and see if she can guess who is who, suggested by CarrotLover69."

Carrie blindfolded Ella on camera, then everybody but Carrie stood in a line. Considering she was the only other girl, they figured it would be too easy to find her. "Try to find Dean," she suggested.

She nodded, stepping up to Phil. She put her hands on his waist, slowly moving them up his torso. She could tell by the way that he broadened out slightly that it wasn't him. She moved on to the next person, PJ. This time she started at his hair, immediately ruling him out. His hair was much shorter than Dean's. She stepped up to the next person, Dan. She put her hands on his hips, causing him to smile. He was careful not to laugh, because he knew that would be a dead giveaway. She resituated her hands up to his shoulders, then ran them down his arms. She moved closer to him, to the point where they could feel each other's warmth. She ran her fingers through his hair, making it stick up in odd places. She already knew by now that it was Dan, but for some reason she just wanted to continue touching him. Almost reluctant, she moved onto the next person. She knew from the beginning that it was Dean, but took a bit of time to make it seem like she was debating between the two. "This is him," she finally said. She didn't need to move onto Jack or Chris.

"Correct!" Carrie beamed. She led Ella away from the boys momentarily to allow them to rearrange themselves. "Now find PJ."

Carrie positioned her at the beginning of the line and she started by running her fingers through their hair. She dismissed him, knowing it was Jack. He was the only one with that kind of hairstyle. She moved onto the next person, running her hands along their torso. It was either Phil or PJ, but she wasn't completely sure. They both had similar body structures. She didn't even have to touch the next person to know it was Dan. She could feel the familiar presence. Even though she longed to run her hands all over his body, she skipped over him. She stepped up to the next person, feeling his hair. She felt up and down his torso to double check. She took a step back before concluding. "It's him."

"Correct!" Carrie announced again.

Ella felt her blindfold being removed and looked up to see Dan looming over her. She smiled at him. He returned her warm smile, his dimple becoming apparent on his left cheek.

"Last but not least," Dean paused, "We have a challenge. Finn Harries, who couldn't be here, challenges us to see who can do the most tequila shots in a minute. Ella, Dan, and PJ have decided to step up to the plate."

They had a table set out with some bottles of tequila and shot glasses. Phil was standing aside using his phone as a timer. Chris was currently pouring shots.

"Ready..." Phil started. "Set... Go!"

They each tossed back a shot and took a new one as Chris was refilling the old ones. Ella was slightly faster than the other two, Dan being the slowest and least coordinated. She continued to let the alcohol burn her throat, each shot burning less and less each time. At the moment she felt fine, but she knew it would all hit her in an hour or so. Dan tried to speed up, knowing there wasn't much time left. He managed to get ahead of PJ, who was slowing down due to have already been drinking earlier. Yet, Ella was still in the lead.

Suddenly the timer went off. "Time!" Phil yelled.

Chris counted up the amount of shots they all did. "PJ loses, six. Dan second, 10. Ella wins, 12," he stated.

"Damn, Ella's on a roll," PJ muttered, half of it coming out slurred. The alcohol was already catching up to him.

Ella giggled, looking at the camera. "Thanks for watching, and thanks even more for subscribing. I hope you enjoyed watching this video. All of the links to their channels are in the description," she finished.

Carrie shut the camera off. "That's a wrap, guys."

Everyone smiled, getting comfortable on the couch and other various places in the living room. Phil ran off and got a hat and a deck of cards while Carrie gathered the paper and pens. They returned back within a few moments.

"Alright everyone, we'll start with Ella. Write down what you want to know and put it in the hat," Chris said.

Everyone scribbled something on their paper and put it in the hat. Ella took a sip of her beer before reaching in and pulling the first piece out. "Would you be opposed to giving us a striptease?" she read, pausing. "Yes." She pulled the next card out. "Can you deep throat?" she sighed before answering, rolling her eyes. "Yeah. Do you sleep naked? Occasionally. Name three things that turn you on. Guys who can play piano, brown eyes, curly hair."

At that, Dan's eyes lit up.

She continued. "How old were you when you lost your virginity? Sixteen. What is your guilty pleasure?" she looked down, knowing she was blushing for sure. "One Direction."

Everybody snickered. She took the last piece out of the hat. "If you had to..." she paused, "snog anyone-"

"No!" PJ cut her off. "It says shag."

"Erm..." she replied. "If you had to shag anyone in this room, who would it be?" Her eyes scanned the room and she looked back down, her face becoming bright red again.

"PJ," Dan began, "she doesn't have to answer that."

"Yes she does," it was becoming obvious he was quite drunk.

"No she doesn't," he repeated.

"Forfeit," she said suddenly.

Carrie looked at her. "Are you sure you don't just want to answer?" she asked.

Ella nodded, her face still bright red.

Dean smiled. "Alright everyone, pick a card. Hearts are kissing, diamonds are massage, clubs are manual stimulation, and spades are oral. The number represents the time doing so."

Everybody picked a card. Dan looked at his. Ten of hearts. At least he didn't have to put her in that odd of a position. She turned to Carrie next to her, who revealed her three of diamonds. She quickly gave her a three second massage then moved onto Jack, which required her to stand up. She got to her feet, a bit shakily, and Dan reached out to steady her. It was obvious she was a bit tipsy, or more. Jack winked at her, showing her the five of clubs. She leaned down and gave him a quick hand job, then moved onto PJ. PJ revealed the ace of hearts, and she planted a sloppy kiss on his lips. Next it was Dan. He showed her the card, and she sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his, her breath tasting highly of alcohol. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned back slightly, to the point where she was on top of him. His tongue slipped into her mouth and it occurred to him that he was probably also drunk. Their lips continued to move in rhythm for what seemed like a lot longer than ten seconds, but nobody was trying to stop it. Her hands moved up to his hair and she ran her fingers through it one again, as she did earlier. Although, this time it wasn't on camera. This time she could do it as much as she pleased.

"Okay, that's enough," Phil startled them. "We don't want a child conceived on this floor."

They immediately separated, breathing heavily. She finished going through everybody else and they continued on with the game. Everything went by relatively quickly and soon it was Dan's turn. He picked the first piece out and recognized the handwriting as Carrie's. "Do you currently have any feelings for a girl?" he read aloud. He silently thanked her for not being completely outright. Although, by the sight of the empty beer bottles surrounding most of them, she could have straight up asked him and only she would have remembered the next day. Aside from Phil, that is, who was currently only buzzed. "Yeah," he answered, glancing over at Ella. She looked as if she was passed out on Carrie's shoulder, but he could tell by her breathing that she was still awake.

Dan opened his eyes, surprised to see where he was. Well, not completely. He was surprised by the fact that he was only wearing boxers and had his arms around Ella. He remembered being at Carrie's and Phil's flat. He glanced around and saw that everyone else was passed out on the floor along with him except Carrie and Phil themselves. He knew they didn't necessarily like drinking as much as the rest of them so they had probably managed to get to bed. He felt Ella stirring in his arms and heard her moan.

"What the fuck happened last night?" she asked.


	3. Chapter 3

Ella scrolled through her tumblr dash, not being able to find a single thing that wasn't _Daniella _related. Of course, she knew people shipped her and Dan, but it was more of a rare occurrence. Apparently not so much anymore. What she didn't understand was why all of a sudden a lot of people began to ship it. Most of the gifs and pictures were from her most recent video, but there were others from various videos. Some people must have gone and investigated the rest of them to pick out any others. She scrolled down to the next post and felt her face go pale. She had forgotten about that video. It was one of her firsts, that she had made with her friend.

_Adriana's eyes scanned the next question. "If you had a crush on another YouTuber, who would it be?" she read aloud. _

_ Ella felt her stomach fill with butterflies as she blurt out, "Pewdiepie!"_

_ Adriana started laughing. "You dirty little liar! We _all _know you have a crush on Danisnotonfire!" _

_ She knew it was true, but couldn't say it out loud. She found it easier to say Pewdiepie because she _didn't _feel that way about him. She looked down at her hands, her face a dark shade of red and murmured, "Next question." She found it hard to keep a smile off of her face thinking about him. _

She _really _hoped Dan hadn't seen that. She would delete it, but that would cause suspicion. What was the worst he could think, anyways? Ella brought up a new tab and went to YouTube to analyze her new video. She watched through it carefully to see if she missed anything. Everything the fans were excited about just seem like normal friend stuff to her. She looked at the comments, most of them pointing out certain "_Daniella_" moments. She continued to look through them, her eyes stopping on one of them.

_She doesn't deserve this. _

She passed over it, knowing that kind of stuff came along with being a YouTuber.

_Why the hell would Dan like her? She's a total slut._

She took a deep breath, continuing to scroll even though she knew she should have stopped.

_She's just doing all of this for fame. If anything she'll only break his heart. Unsubscribe! _

Soon she was lost in hate comments, closed to tears. She quickly refreshed, seeing that some people were standing up for her. It still didn't help. She couldn't get what they had said out of her mind. She knew this was all they wanted to do; to get to her, and they were succeeding. Being the person she was, these kinds of things always got to her. She knew when she started this that these kinds of things would happen, but she couldn't just quit. Especially now that she had over a million subscribers. She had a million people waiting for each video every week. A million people who relied on her to make their shitty days better. And there were people that she was helping through the rough times in their life that she, herself, wasn't even through. She couldn't let them down. There was only one way she could cope with all of this. She stood up and went to the bathroom, turning on the shower. She let the warm water run down her head, making her hair stick to her skin. She opened her hand slightly, gripping the blade in her finger tips and running it along the already scarred skin on her stomach. She wasn't stupid enough to cut her wrists. She wasn't one of those people who did it for attention. The only person who ever knew she did it was Michael, and she regretted ever telling him.

_"So it's true?" she stammered. "He's right? You're cheating on me?"_

_ He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Yes. I do love you, but I don't think you love me back."_

_ "How could you say that!" she screeched, feeling the salty tears roll down her cheeks. _

_ "I've seen you and Dan together before. You're so different around him than with me," he mumbled. _

_ "He doesn't know. I _have _to be different around him."_

_ He looked at the ground. "That's another thing. It's hard for me to see you harm yourself because you're so depressed. Sometimes I feel like I fell in love with a different person."_

_ "I would have never confided in you if I had known it would lead to this!"_

_ He turned to look her in the eyes. "So you're saying you'd build a relationship on lies?"_

_ "I'm not the one who cheated," she sniffed, standing up to leave. _

_ "Ella-" he started._

_ "No," she interrupted him. "This is obviously over."_

_ "Fine. Just please don't hurt yourself. I still love you."_

_ She stopped, her hand on the door. "That's easier said than done," and she left. _

She was crying now at the memory, her tears running down her face. She hadn't realized how deep she had been sticking the blade until she cried out in pain. Blood ran down her body and she watched it flow down the drain. Her vision became blurry.

Dan watched over the video, knowing his face was red throughout the period watching it. Had Ella noticed yet? He hadn't even noticed his eyes were locked on her for the entire duration of the video. The way his face lit up when she ran her hands through his hair and the way it fell when she skipped over her. They were subtle, but was Ella observant enough to notice? It wasn't hard to tell that the fans were. He scrolled through his dash on tumblr for probably the millionth time today, seeing all the same things. Only one new gif set popped out at him. It looked to be one of Ella's older videos. She was with one of her friends answering Twitter questions.

"If you had a crush on another YouTuber, who would it be?" her friend read.

"Pewdiepie!" she nervously replied.

Her friend burst into laughter. "You dirty little liar! We _all _know you have a crush on Danisnotonfire!"

Ella's face went red and she looked down at her hands, a small smile on her face. "Next question," she murmured.

Dan continued to watch the gif set at least one hundred times. He couldn't believe it. She liked him. He knew there was probably a huge goofy smile taking up his whole face at the moment. Then, suddenly, it vanished after a thought. She may _have _liked him, but that didn't mean she _still _liked him. After all, the video was made over two years ago. It was made before she came here, and more importantly before she ever knew Michael.

He liked the gif set, and continued to scroll down. He went to another page, about to play music when he heard a cry. _Ella? _he wondered. He dismissed it quickly, beginning to play _Stole My Heart _by One Direction. He would never admit it, but he actually liked their music. He turned it to a low volume and hummed it quietly until he heard a loud _thump_. "Ella?" he called, pausing the song.

There was no reply. In the silence, he could hear the shower running. He stood up and left his room, going down the hall and knocked on the door. "Ella?" he asked again.

Once again, there was no reply. Now he was slightly worried. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Ella!" he yelled.

He took a few steps back and rammed against the door, to no avail. He backed up quite a bit down the hallway, and ran full force into the door, directed towards the doorknob. Thankfully, it opened. The water was running, and in the tub, Ella was in a pool of blood. He gasped, trying not to barf. Blood freaked him out. He turned off the shower and looked for a towel, but didn't see one. He leaned down and lifted her legs, then put his arm around her back and carried her into the living room. He set her on the couch and took his shirt off, dabbing at her stomach where it looked as if the blood was coming from. There was a look of horror on his face when he saw what was the cause of the blood. He stumbled back slightly and fell, suddenly out of breath.

"Why," he whispered. "Why, why, why..." his voice shook with each word that left his mouth.

He crawled back over and touched his fingertips to one of the many scars. "Why?" he asked again. "What would drive you to do this?"

He saw her eyes begin to flutter open. They were red and stained with makeup, but Dan could also see how hurt they were.

"Why?" he asked again, now that she was conscious. "Why?" he repeated, close to tears himself.

"You'd never understand," she responded.

"I don't," he murmured. "I was bullied, but I was never driven to do that."

She almost laughed. "It wasn't the bullying. It was the fact that no matter what I did, my parents didn't approve. '_Oh, Ella. This silly YouTube thing isn't going to work out. Go outside and make some real friends._'," she mocked. "'_You shouldn't trust a boy you met once. Just because you kept in touch online doesn't mean you love him._'," she continued, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.

Dan wiped them away gently. "That's it?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. After that, my entire world just decided to collapsed along with it. Getting kicked out of Uni because my _friends _blamed me when they got caught with drugs. Constant hate from stupid trolls on YouTube. And worst of all, my mom being right about Michael. I shouldn't have trusted him."

"Promise me you'll stop," he said.

"That's easier said than done," she winced at the familiar words. She sat up, and it was then she realized she was naked. At this point, though, she didn't really care. Everything she was hiding from him he had seen.

"Ella-"

She cut him off by standing up and fleeing to her room. She put on her pajamas, a shirt and boy shorts, then climbed into her bed. She clutched the blanket to her chest, sobbing. The door opened and closed and she felt the bed lean in slightly as Dan got in next to her. He put his arms around her and she stopped shaking as much. "I'm sorry," she said.

"It's okay," he replied.


End file.
